One year ago I wrote, “When I’m fifty or sixty or seventy I’ll be looking back and I’ll probably think of 2005 as one of the most influential years of my life.” If 2005 was a pivotal year in my life, 2006 was even more pivotal. A year ago I was getting a raise at my job as a web developer and spending most of time sitting in a cubicle daydreaming about being a game developer. Doing the web development thing for a while taught me many things, but the most important was that I don’t want to be a web developer.

Around the end of February I finally finished my application for FIEA. While I nervously awaited word of my acceptance things were getting strange at my job. The company was splitting in two, which created all kinds of intra-office politics.

In April I got word of my acceptance to FIEA. I began making preparations to quit my job and move to Florida.

The summer was dominated by the World Cup, which totally engrossed me for the duration. It was an excellent tournament, during which the best of the sport was on display.

I visited Orlando with Gillian to look at apartments in the early part of the summer. The trip was somewhat discouraging, because most of the apartments sucked and were too expensive. Fortunately, FIEA was able to place me in a rental house with a couple other students.

Around the end of July I put in my notice and quit my job. Shortly thereafter I hopped in a Uhaul and drove to Florida. Just before the beginning of the semester I was lucky enough to be invited to go for an amazing vacation in Key West. When I got back, the semester began. To be continued…

FIFA published their first new world rankings table since the end of the World Cup. The USA is no longer in the top ten (we were ranked fifth going into the tournament). Brazil is still untoppled in the number one spot, despite not making to the last four teams in the Cup. Italy’s win catapulted them from thirteenth to second. Good to see Ghana getting some props–now ranked 25th. I think they deserve to be in the top twenty.

Best Player Zinedine Zidane. After a lackluster start for the French, he was able to pull the team together and lead them to, if not a fairytale ending, at least a solid second-place finish.

Worst Player Ronaldinho. He didn’t do anything to deserve “worst player,” because he didn’t do anything. He completely failed to live up to the hype as a two-time world player of the year. Contrast his performance with those of two other former world players of the year who are not in the primes of their careers: Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane.

Biggest Gripe All the cards. I understand that FIFA wants to make the game more technical and less physical, but it got out of hand. The stricter punishments favored teams that dive and flop. Referees at this level need to start yellow carding for dives.

Biggest Joy Ghana’s performance. Ghana’s group was the toughest in the tournament and it was no fluke that they moved on, sending home two teams that entered the tournament with excellent rankings.

Best Match So many to choose from. there was wonderful football on display many times in the tournament, notably in the Spain v France match and the Italy v Germany match, but the most entertaining game of the tournament had to be Croatia 2 - 2 Australia. The late game heroics… both teams giving it their all… the triple yellow card… there was a lot to like in this game.

Worst Match Portugal 1 - 0 Netherlands. Sure, it was very entertaining, but was it really football? The cards were rampant and it often looked like the players were more interested in injuring the other team than in playing the ball. It was painful to watch the Dutch get eliminated by an inferior Portuguese side.

Biggest Surprise Spain burst out of the gate with an exciting and dynamic squad. They’ll be a team to watch in Euro 2008 for sure.

Best Quote Whatever it was Marco Materazzi said to Zinedine Zidane to provoke such a violent response.

Team of the Tournament (4-4-2) Ricardo; Marquez, Lahm, Thuram, Cannavaro; Robben, Essien, Zidane, Deco; Klose, Torres. Subs: Ribery, van Persie, Appiah, Kewell, Van der Sar, Tevez.

This post was inspired by the Guardian’s reviews of the World Cup.

I want to apologize to the country of Holland for the following acts of mine that led to such a disgraceful loss to Portugal… (read the rest)

Update: More serious commentary on the game. I really wanted to like Marco Van Basten. I like his style of playing the younger, lesser-known, players. At least whoever picks up the reins will have a squad full of talented youngsters going into 2010. Hup Holland!

Congrats to the US team. After a horrendous first game we were able to recover (some of) our form against Italy and Ghana. Maybe next time. At least my other team is still in the tournament.

I have this problem with blogging: I am too lazy to do it with any regularity.

Life news:

I went to Orlando and looked at apartments. I found a lot of places I’d like to live, but nothing near downtown and they’re all quite expensive. Hopefully another FIEA student will want to split some housing with me.

My job is going well. I have short-timer’s syndrome though. So mostly I sit at my desk and read books. Sometimes I surf the internet. I’ve also been streaming the World Cup games with a program called TVUPlayer. (I’m rooting for Holland and of course the USA.)

I recently interviewed with Google. They came across my résumé on a web search. They contacted me and did a preliminary technical screening. I guess I passed, because they scheduled me for a second technical screening, this time with an engineer instead of a recruiter. I declined the interview because I’m already set on going to grad school. I may post the few questions they asked me later.

My car’s in the shop this week. It had a very minor issue that, due to some awful engineering, caused the car to refuse to shift out of “park”.

Thus concludes my one minute summary of the past few months.

After watching HALF of the Argentina vs. Serbia & Montenegro game I can honestly say I will be shocked if Argentina don’t win this tournament. They look astonishingly good.